Tracy Idell Hamilton: Venue tax for everybody!

At least, that’s what it’s starting to feel like, as local universities pile on after hearing about UTSA’s pitch for $50 million venue tax dollars for a proposed multi-sports complex.

St. Mary’s wants some to renovate some existing buildings, while Trinity doesn’t even have a plan yet, just wants to see what might be available.

Lost in all the grubbing, though, are the guidelines that govern how money from the hotel and car rental tax (which was first voted for by residents to build the AT&T Center for the Spurs in 1999), can be spent if voters extend it.

HB 334 is the law that governs the venue tax, so-called because it’s meant to build “sports and community venues” that increase tourism, or “heads in beds” in industry vernacular.

I recently emailed Mike Sculley, the county’s consultant who is running the three committees tasked with forwarding worthy projects to commissioners court in Decemeber. I asked about the sudden interest by local universities in the tax.

Sculley asked a couple questions of his own in response: “Does UTSA project fit the intent of the HB 334? Does St. Mary’s presentation include anything that fits?”

I think what he’s saying is that while it might seem like the process is in danger of spiraling out of control, the 20+ members of the amateur sports committee have a scoring system that allows them to rate how well the project fits with HB 334, whether it already has other partners and sources of funding, and whether it fills an existing need.

Ostensibly, only those projects that score the highest will be recommended to Commissioners Court.

Of course, the wild card is that in the end, the commish can choose to ignore those recommendations and pick what they want to put on the ballot.

Then it’s look out voter, as the full court press to get you to vote for each project will commence. Expect a campaign in the millions.